The Russian government's list is growing of NGOs being targeted for receiving some foreign funds. No major NGOs have agreed to the label, suggesting a wave of shutdowns may be looming.

Now, following a wave of inspections of groups across the country, there is a growing list of organizations faced with that heavily bureaucratized yet nonetheless exquisite Catch-22: Either voluntarily swallow what they regard as a poison pill, and brand themselves "foreign agents" in all of their public activities and materials, or face escalating fines that are followed, ultimately, by police shutdown.

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"It's the old KGB assumption: if you take any money from abroad, it means you're working for them," he says.

"It's not quite clear what the final goal [of the current campaign] is, but it looks like the authorities want to close or incapacitate all the NGOs that receive money from abroad. Though the law stipulates a group must get foreign funding and engage in politics, in fact the definition of 'political activity' is wonderfully vague, and could be made to apply to any attempt to influence public opinion on any subject. Courts in this country are not independent, so 'political' boils down to whatever the authorities say it is," Mr. Nikitin adds.

"It's the old KGB assumption: if you take any money from abroad, it means you're working for them," he says.

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If you take money from a guy like say George Soros then there is problem. NGOs getting foreign funds should be submitted to government scrutiny and if they are not doing anything wrong there is no need to cry foul.